The Healing Way Services

When you use opioids for an extended period of time, your natural production of dopamine is halted and your brain undergoes drastic changes. When you then remove the opioids from your system, your brain reacts by flooding the body with stress hormones, causing you to feel sick, agitated, and unhappy. And so the cycle of dependency and addiction begins. Methadone changes the way our bodies react to the pain and discomfort of withdrawal. It is a long-acting medication, with the effects of methadone lasting for 24 to 36 hours. In contrast, a person who uses short-acting opioids to avoid withdrawal must use numerous times throughout the day. When taken at the correct dose, methadone prevents withdrawal symptoms and reduces drug cravings without causing the person to feel high (euphoric) or sleepy. This lowers the harms associated with opioid misuse and gives people who are addicted to opioids a chance to stabilize their lives and focus on counseling to begin the healing process.

  • Methadone has been around since the 1940s, making it a clinically proven effective treatment and is widely considered a golden standard of treatment options for Opiate Use Disorder because it has been studied since the 70’s when it was regulated for addiction treatment.
  • MAT increases time in treatment, decreases illicit opiate use, decreases criminal behavior and reduces the need for detox services.
  • MAT improves patient survival rates by reducing overdose risk, it increases the ability to maintain gainful employment and improve family relationships, and enhances quality of life by opening the doors to therapy and allowing individuals to work on the underlying causes of their substance use disorder

  • At THW’s Methadone Maintenance Program, our participants work individually with our physicians to stabilize on the blocking dose that is efficient for each individual. Medical follow ups are regular scheduled, as well as yearly annual physicals.
  • Our MMP counselors are trained in supporting patients through the induction process, as well as on their road to recovery. Our patients participate in groups and individual counseling based on their strengths, needs, and preferences.
  • Unlike the stigma often associated with methadone, THW supports those in completing their MAT journey, and is proud to regularly have patients completing their MAT treatment.

The Healing Way

Annual Report

2024

 
 
 

 

Our Vision

Our vision is to improve the lives of every person who steps foot through our doors. We understand that each person’s path looks different, and we are committed to helping you see your own resiliency. When you come to The Healing Way, we want you to feel that you are in a safe, accepting, and comforting environment, so that together, we can start your journey of healing.

 

Our Mission

The Healing Way strives to provide the highest quality outpatient treatment to community members with substance use disorder, mental health conditions, and co-occurring disorders. We tailor your treatment to be holistic, comprehensive, and individualized for your preferences and needs. Our foundation is built on treating each person entering our programs with dignity, respect, compassion, and most of all to promote hope and empowerment by focusing on healing. Our program members are involved in all aspects of their care, and our clinicians prioritize understanding the underlying causes of client’s behavioral health problems by integrating socio-economic histories, past traumas, medical problems, legal issues, job problems, living arrangements, and family dynamics.

 

Our Philosophy

Our team is cultivated by a unique mix of addictions counselors, therapists, intake specialists, licensed physicians, psychiatrists and nurses. We come from diverse backgrounds and are a variety of ages, but we all have the same goal, to meet you exactly where you are. Our treatment philosophy is based on:

  • Personal Responsibility: It is up to each of us to take action to improve our well-being. Once you take the first step to ask for help, our team is able to guide you in the right direction. During the treatment process, we work on taking responsibility for decisions we’ve made in order to find acceptance, begin healing, and change our thought patterns.
  • Support: Emotional support directly correlates to quality of life. People suffering from behavioral health disorders are often ostracized from their family and friends, and are in need of an external support network, provided by our team, in order to re-build their personal support systems.
  • Education: Everyone in our programs receive education on their diagnoses and the self-defeating thought patterns that often tag along. In order to effectively treat the problem, we believe that you must first learn to recognize the signs and symptoms.
  • Self-Advocacy: Building constructive communication skills through the importance of self-advocacy. Struggling with behavioral health needs often results in neglecting our own care. We advocate for our program members while guiding them to learn to advocate for themselves.
  • Hope: One of the major ingredients for long term success in a wellness plan is hope. Ensuring that every person believes they can cope and improve their weaknesses, is the essential building block to recovery, improvement, and longevity. Our team is the cornerstone of hope in your personal journey.

THW Core Values

Excellence

  • We are passionate about delivering results.
  • We are dedicated total customer satisfaction.
  • We evaluate our efforts and strive to do better.
  • We make a positive difference in people's lives.
  • We promote individual and agency growth.

Stewardship

  • We are accountable to our participants and stakeholders.
  • We manage resources effectively and efficiently.
  • We plan today to prepare for tomorrow.

Integrity

  • We apply the highest ethical, moral and professional standards in our conduct.
  • We work with a passion to do the right thing.
  • We care about what we do.
  • We care about the people we work with and the services we provide.

Innovation

  • We constantly look for ways to improve, to be more effective and efficient and to do things better.

Teamwork

  • We are a community with diverse strengths working together to achieve a common goal.
  • We recognize and respond to the needs of others.
  • We are responsible to each other.
  • We build on each other's strengths.

 

Goals for 2024

  • Hire experienced, dedicated, caring staff (always ongoing)
  • Train staff in specialties that they are passionate about (always ongoing)
  • Maintain CARF 3-year Accreditation and pass CARF Survey 12/2024 .
  • Expand group programming to accommodate the schedules and needs of our participants (completed and ongoing).
  • Open an Anger Management Program. (completed 4/2024)
  • Endeavor to develop funding streams from a variety of resources including RFPs for Drug and Alcohol Services from CBH. (ongoing)
  • Create relationships with Philadelphia area halfway houses to support participants who have no finances or phone to access services. (completed)
  • Create community relationships to help break the stigma of substance use and mental health disorders. (completed and ongoing)
  • Hire a Peer Support Specialist. (completed)

 The projects THW is working on to improve the agency

 - New Trainings

Our team regularly reviews what our clinical strengths and weaknesses on an individual and group basis. We discuss areas that we find we have room to improve, and areas that we find would benefit our participants in order to participate in additional trainings and continuously improve the quality of services that we provide. This year our entire time completed a variety of external trainings in Crisis Prevention Intervention, Clinical Trauma Certification, Caring for the Forensic Population, Suicide Screening and Prevention, Anger Management, Emerge Model Batterer’s Intervention, and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions, to name a few.

-New Contracts

We continue to wait for DBHIDS and CBH to announce an RFP so that we can have the opportunity to credential for drug and alcohol services as well as Medication Assisted Treatment.

-Community Outreach

We became members of the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition. We also created a relationship with the Knights Road branch of the YMCA to provide quarterly mental health seminars.

- Participant Feedback and Appreciation

We conduct quarterly surveys of our program participants to ensure that we are meeting their needs and provide them an opportunity to give us feedback. We are very proud that 100% of the 150+ surveys distributed in 2024 responses have been positive!

  • In 2024 we hosted a patient appreciation picnic in July.
  • We held a wellness oriented art therapy contest for our group participants.
  • We had a holiday season luncheon,
  • We provide coffee and refreshments for all groups.
  • We provide group participant dinner on the last Wednesday of every month.
  • We collected new coats for donation to our participants.

 

 

2024 Year End Information

The total number of clients receiving Medication Assisted Treatment through The Healing Way has gone down because we have limited funders and our patients pay out of pocket for treatment, which is a barrier we have been trying to overcome since opening our doors.

At the end of 2024 we have 65 patients attending our Methadone Program, 102 in our outpatient drug and alcohol program, and 270 in our Mental health program.

Of our MAT program, we are proud to share that 75 percent of our participants submit regular clean urine analyses and are stable. Other than individuals on disability, all our MAT participants are employed. Of the 25 percent who are not providing clean urine, the bulk are newer participants who are working on stabilizing.

In 2024 we had two clinicians become certified in Anger Management and we opened an Anger Management program which has about 15 people actively participating and making significant progress in their emotional regulation.

Our Batterers Intervention Program has 23 people and we are proud to report that 90 percent of our participants since opening this program in 2022 have completed successfully and remain out of legal contact.

Our outpatient group programming has expanded ten-fold and we have worked hard to meet the scheduling needs of our participants so that they can maintain their employment and family responsibilities while engaging in treatment. We have evening groups offered 4 days out of the week. We have Anger Management and Batterer’s Intervention programming in both the morning and evening. We have a variety of group Saturdays including Women’s group. We are providing Art Therapy as well as an additional support.

In 2023 we began a relationship at Kintock Halfway house to provide assessments for Parole referred individuals who have no financial income and no means of transportation to get to a provider/assessment center. In 2024 we have expanded our halfway house relationships to cover all the Philadelphia area halfway houses. We now conduct onsite assessments and programming in Kintock 4 days a week, we also come on site to Self Help Movement to complete intakes. We now provide Mental Health assessments and programming for the residents of the female halfway house Philly House. We also now provide telehealth assessments for residents of Gaudenzia who cannot access our facility. We are proud of the relationships we have cultivated as we are helping to break barriers to care!

In 2024 we continued our participation in the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition to help bring resources together for the re-entry community. We were asked to be board members of their health action committee.

2025 Goals

  1. Look for a RFP from Philadelphia Community Behavioral Health for Drug and Alcohol outpatient and Medication Assisted Services.
  2. Re-visit getting a contract with Magellan and with that a contract with Buck County Drug & Alcohol.
  3. We are planning to bring medical/primary care into our service catalog in 2025.
  4. We will continue our new tradition of twice yearly patient appreciation luncheons hosted by our staff.
  5. Expand our day programming to offer more mid-day groups.
  6. Continue specialty external trainings to help strengthen our abilities and provide the best care possible.

 

Fee For Services and Insurances

We proudly accept Medicare and Cigna HMO for our Methadone Program. Other than accepting Medicare, we remain fee for service with a weekly rate of $155.00, due every Monday. This is an all encompassing rate which includes the medication, doctor's follow ups, individual and group counseling, as well as regular urine analysis. The intake fee is $250.00 and includes the first week of $155.00 prorated into intake.

For Mental Health treatment including psychiatric evaluations and medication management we accept Philadelphia County funding, Community Behavioral Health. If you are a participant of the following health plans, you automatically have CBH coverage: Keystone First, Health Partners Plans, Aetna Better Health, United Health Care Community Plan.